28 Ellen Key poem that appealed to her as giving expression to her own mood. Tegner, Runeberg, and Nikander were her favourite poets during these years. At that time she little dreamed that she herself would write. It was under the influence of Almkvist, Geijer, and Bjomson, the "deeply beloved" poets of her twenty- year period, that she began to think of writing—sketches of peasant life—and made extensive studies with this object in view. The clear-sightedness of her mother, however, saved her from wasting time in a direction in which her talents did not lie. The mother's words, that "Ellen was too introspective, too little interested in, or observant of, the diversity of life," were decisive for her. Ellen deeply felt the truth of this, and with her eyes thus opened to her limitations she came to under- stand that the soul, its life, condition, and growth, was even then the great question for her. Therefore she began to concentrate her mind on this problem. Individualist from birth as Ellen Key had been, she may not always have been easy to handle and to understand. She had a mind of her own. Her love for reading was so passion- ate that she believes herself capable of com- mitting crimes to get books. She would take